Animorphs: The Crossover
by Deep Roller
Summary: Marco's always thinking with his stomach. And this time it's landed everyone in trouble with a certain Slayer and her group. Has anyone ever morphed a vampire before? Oh man, crossovers should really be illegal.
1. Chapter One: Marco

The Crossover  
  
By Deep Roller  
  
Author's Note: I really should not be writing this. If it shows up in any of those ever popular badfic communities, not only will I not be surprised, but maybe even somewhat honored in a weird…sort of way. The only things to keep in mind when reading this are that I haven't read Animorphs in like, forever (and I didn't finish the series but I know how it ends) and my knowledge of the Buffyverse is somewhat spotty. That mix adds up to make me repeat the first sentence. I really should not be writing this. But I am.   
  
Oh well. It takes place before Oz left in Buffyverse and after David in Animorphverse. So it's kind of…odd. Yes, I'm probably warping canon timelines.   
  
Disclaimer:  
  
Animorphs and all its characters are the property of K.A. Applegate. Buffy and all her pals (and not-so-pals) are Joss Whedon's. No profit is being made from this. None of the characters involved in this story are mine minus the occasional truck driver or ice cream vendor. My….pants are mine, though. That's always a bonus.  
  
Chapter One: Marco  
  
I suppose this whole thing is really my fault. But don't go around saying that, okay? If it got around that I actually admitted it, I'd never live it down. Rachel would most definitely see to that, saying "I knew it!" or "Well, we all knew THAT, Marco," in that annoying way she has. Jake would probably read me the riot act if he really knew how it started. When we're on a mission we're not supposed to stop for refreshments, it's one of Jake's Big No-No's.   
  
But hey, a guy gets hungry! It's not an easy job saving the world from those brain stealing little worms, and it's certainly not a task you can go about doing on an empty stomach. But I better back up a little, and begin at the beginning, which is always a good idea.  
  
This all started when Cassie, CASSIE of all people, got called into Vice Principal Chapman's office. While she was in there, she saw that he had a flyer for the Sharing on his desk. When Chapman stepped out of the office for a moment (he does that so that you get more and more nervous about what he's going to do to you when he comes back into the room) she snagged the flyer and made a copy. Then she put the original back where it had been, and when she told us she made it sound incredibly Mission Impossible. I repeat, Cassie, of all people.   
  
"What were you doing to get called into Chapman's office?" Tobias asked her, incredulous as the rest of us. So incredulous in fact, that he had actually shown up for the meeting following the paper discovery. He's been kind of bad about showing up to meetings lately, what with a pair of Harris hawks trying to muscle in on his territory. But enough about hawk-world. Back to Marco-world.   
  
"Well, we were having a debate over offshore drilling, and Deanna Reagan just got me so upset, a couple words just slipped out. Very un-Cassie words. Even the teacher was shocked." Cassie seemed a bit embarrassed still, and Jake gave her a look like he was going to reprimand her, but couldn't get past the smile. He probably thinks Cassie is cute when she's angry. Lots and lots of MUSH people, it tends to get to your brain.  
  
"I don't blame you," Rachel said. "Because Deanna Reagan is a huge un-Cassie word."   
  
"About the letter?" I inquired, trying to get everyone back to what the meeting was initially called for. I mean, I had TV shows I couldn't possibly miss, and my dad is notorious for screwing up the taping process. Nothing worse than kicking back with a good episode of Letterman and having it cut to C-SPAN or something equally boring. So you can see how I was feeling pressure to be the responsible one.  
  
"The letter, right!" Cassie said, fishing it out of her backpack. "You guys look it over, I have to feed this new litter of five week old fox cubs that just came in." Count on Cassie to have to feed or bandage something during one of our meetings. The barn, though a reasonably private place to have said meetings, was also rather distracting when particularly noisy animals were staying there.   
  
The flyer was passed from one person to the next, each of us looking for some sort of hidden clue as to sinister Yeerk activity. It said, word for word:  
  
'The Sharing invites you to Bowling Night!   
  
Free sodas and nachos for everyone who shows up! Bring a friend!  
  
A free backpack and baseball cap to all who sign up!  
  
From 7 pm- 9pm at Creekside Lanes  
  
Don't be late!  
  
3o45354efgdtrertyfdsr  
  
"Other than that they went a little heavy on the exclamation marks, I can't really make anything out. Oh, and they need to clean up that little computer burp at the bottom of the page, looks a bit messy." Tobias said, handing the letter to Ax.   
  
"I bet the Sharing has horrible, mustard colored backpacks," I ventured, trying to picture anyone ever wanting to wear a Sharing backpack. Or baseball cap for that matter. "I wonder if the baseball cap is to make the Yeerks have team spirit, like a baseball team."  
  
"Oh Marco, stop, no one wants to hear you babble." Rachel said without much conviction. Her mind clearly seemed to be elsewhere.  
  
"What's the matter, Rachel? Your comebacks don't have that particular bite to them this afternoon."  
  
"I could be shopping my heart out at Valley Acres right now, so many stores are having sales today. But instead, I'm sitting here, reading about Yeerk bowling night."  
  
"Prince Jake," Ax suddenly said tersely, the letter clutched in his hand as his eyes slid to regard each one of us, centering on Jake. "It is not a computer 'burp' as Tobias said. I do not think those machines could ingest the food or soda needed to make such a noise. Oise. Nuh."  
  
"Practicing your pig Latin, Ax?" I asked mildly.  
  
"What is it, Ax?" Jake asked before Ax could respond to my comment.  
  
"It is code. Deciphered it reads 'Discussion of new pool security mandatory. Valley Acres unsuitable? Meet in front of Valley Acres.' Unsuitable. Sooooootable."   
  
"They've built a new Yeerk pool? What's the matter, tired of the same old-same old? Need a little bit of luxury? The Visser probably needs bubbles and some jets to massage away the bumps in his slug body, am I right?" I asked, thinking that maybe if I just kept talking, Jake wouldn't say what I knew he was probably going to say anyway.  
  
"We need to check this out." Great. Jake is the king of checking things out. It's a wonder he hasn't gotten a job as a clerk at a grocery store by now. As a check out clerk, in case you didn't catch that joke, since my humor is so advanced. "Tonight, if we can. Good job, Ax, but how did you know that code?" Jake asked, taking the flyer and studying it again. A baffled expression, like a monkey regarding a steering wheel, came over Jake's face. That's his thinking face, which is almost always fun to watch.  
  
"Even as young children, we Andalites are taught to read code, all kinds of code from many species. Yeerk code is easy, and fun to decipher. Fer. Fur." He looked incredibly pleased with himself at Jake's praise and I suddenly felt a rocking sensation in my stomach. I suddenly and clearly knew who was going to be doing the checking out. It would all play out just as it was doing in my head.  
  
"I'll go!" Rachel instantly volunteered. " I don't have any homework tonight so I'm not skipping anything, plus Sarah and Jordan are with mom in the city. And maybe I can make that sale at the Limited." Rachel always goes, no matter what. It's almost disturbing how eager she sounds when she volunteers, too. Like she's expecting to get cookies or something.  
  
"I can't," Cassie sighed, "I have to stay with these little guys and feed them every four hours. Plus I'm grounded for the whole vice principal's office thing."   
  
"English project tonight, worth fifty percent of my grade. Due tomorrow." Jake said, holding his hands up in a "what can I do?" sort of way.   
  
"I have to go home and look out for Harris hawks since they don't seem to want to find their own tree."  
  
"If Prince Jake wants me to, I will go along with Rachel and Marco." Ax said, nodding.  
  
"Whoa whoa, what about this 'and Marco' business? I never said I was going! I might have….an important episode of Passions…to watch." I tried, grabbing on to any sort of hold I could. Of course, now everyone was looking at me pointedly.  
  
"Passions, Marco? That's not even ON on Wednesdays, anyway." Rachel snorted. I shot her a death glare before I looked imploringly at Jake. "Aren't Rachel and Ax enough?" It wasn't that I was lazy, you understand. It was just that being near Rachel and Ax for long periods of time tended to get on one's nerves. Mostly because Rachel can get whiny if we're near a shopping area she isn't allowed access to and Ax is….well…Ax.  
  
"Come on, Marco. It's just recon. In fact, I'll insist that you don't morph unless you have to. For that reason, Ax, I'm afraid you'll have to stay behind this time. Can't risk anyone seeing you demorph in a strip mall."  
  
"Jake! Buddy!" I tried my puppy dog face, which oddly made no impact on him whatsoever.   
  
So that night, Rachel and I headed out to the Valley Acres strip mall at seven, just two kids out looking for a party. Rachel looked longingly into the windows of the Limited, pressing her nose up to the glass and sighing heavily.  
  
"Fifty percent off. Look at those jeans. Look at that belt!"   
  
"Yeah, yeah, love the beadwork. Listen, Rachel, we're here to do some recon. Why don't we actually go walk around?" Rachel sort of waved her hand at me to dismiss me. I could have just left her there. I should have, probably. Instead I tried a different tactic. "Hey, I think I heard something!"  
  
Rachel whirled around, immediately going into pounce mode. "Where?" She asked, almost tensing as she looked from side to side. Valley Acres strip mall was closed for the night, the parking lot empty and bathed in the glow of stadium lights. The stores were dark, and there were alleyways between them that were heavily shadowed. There was a covered walkway lit dimly by orange lights every few feet or so, making the whole place kind of shadowy and mysterious. Figures the Yeerks would want a pool around here, it's convenient to so many different places, like Starbucks or the pizza place, or the Limited, of course.  
  
"I think it's coming from that alley over there. Let's split up and meet back here, in front of the Limited." I said, catching something in my peripheral vision that I wanted to go investigate further. Wow, that's a way to use a big word in a sentence. And people say I'm dumb. Anyway, Rachel of course liked the idea of tearing off after some black clad baddie Yeerk, and was instantly on her way down the alley. "Remember not to do that thing unless you absolutely have to!" I called after her before heading toward the thing I had spied. A snack machine.  
  
I fished in my pockets for some change because I saw a bag of Gardetto's sitting half in and half out of the little hooks they hold the food in place with. That's snack machine pay dirt, and I was going to get two bags of Gardetto's. See, I hadn't had any breakfast, and lunch was the usual thrilling 'corn in mystery sauce with a side of mustard and peas' that our cafeteria calls nourishing. Two bags of Gardetto's would definitely tide me over until this little recon mission was over. Thunk! One bag, the bag some other sucker had shelled out money for, and then here came the second bag. No! It got caught on the treacherous metal hook, hovering half in and half out of the balance.   
  
Suddenly I whirled around, hearing the sound of footsteps on the concrete. Someone was coming my way. I ducked down out of sight against the snack machine's side, curling to stay in the shadow. The person hadn't seen me, hopefully. And the footsteps sounded as if they were going down a different alleyway. With a sigh of relief, I opened the bag as quietly as I could and ate one of the pretzels. Crunch, crunch, was that me or…? The footsteps had returned, and now they were walking faster toward me. I was in the shadow, and I reasoned that I could probably deal with whatever was walking toward me, provided it was alone.  
  
So I started the gorilla morph.  
  
I always had a sneaking suspicion that Andalites developed morphing technology to scare the crap out of their friends and amuse each other at parties, the game "What Am I Turning Into?" was probably a bigger hit than charades, because morphing is so darn RANDOM. It's never first the fur and then the gorilla body follows, or a hairless gorilla body that gets coated in fur. And this time, my teeth changed first, from small flat human teeth to the powerful grinding teeth of the dominant male gorilla, complete with surprisingly sharp, longish canines. My face sort of lengthened and stretched as I reached up to feel that my eyebrows had disappeared, replaced by a huge mass of bulgy skin. I chanced a look at the person coming toward me and immediately stopped the morph. Long blond hair, thin gymnast figure, it was Rachel. Guiltily I shoved another handful of Gardetto's into my mouth, the gorilla teeth making much shorter work of the crispy food than my human teeth would have. I shoved the bag behind the soda machine and rose to greet Rachel, prepared with an explanation.  
  
"Rachel, I.." my voice sounded funny, mangled a little bit by the facial and dental changes, causing me to laugh at my own self. But suddenly I was up against the cold hard brick wall of the building with a hand under my throat and a pointy thing aimed at my chest. "Jeeze, what's the deal, Rachel?! Where'd you get that pointy thing? It's me, Marco?" I asked, worried that at last this crazy hidden life had gotten to her. But then my eyes adjusted to the shadowed face framed by the lights and I freaked a little bit. Because, see, whoever had me backed up against this wall wasn't Rachel. And that startled me into shoving back out at the blonde girl enough to unbalance her, leaving me to make a dash for the snack machine again. I wanted to be a big hairy primate with the strength of twelve men when I faced her again so perhaps she'd faint and make my job easier. Most certainly a Controller, and she'd have to come with us to get the Yeerk out of her head. She'd seen me mostly human, and I'd said both my name and Rachel's.  
  
It seemed to take forever, but by the time she had come running back at me, I was ready to face her. I seized the arm with the pointy thing, and then the pointy thing. It was a stake! I was this close to getting staked! Breaking it, I called for Rachel, the real Rachel. This girl was fighting my hold on me, and doing a pretty good job, so I made a scary gorilla noise and called again in thoughtspeech.  
  
Rachel! Wherever the heck you are, get over here by the snack machine and help me out! Come in your biggest, baddest morph, alright? Of course, if there were other Controllers around, they'd hear me since my thoughtspeech wasn't exactly very quiet. But I was looking at the parking lot and seeing no cars or people, and no aliens were coming up on us just yet. Of course, the Rachel-alike had heard me, and she was now looking at me in earnest confusion. It wouldn't hurt to let her knew I was in on her little secret. If you're thinking of yelling, Yeerk, don't. I'll snap your neck like a twig.  
  
"What's a Yeerk?" The girl asked, to which I merely snorted derisively. Where the heck was Rachel, anyway?  
  
I needn't have worried. A large African elephant was heading straight toward us. A gorilla, okay. People might look twice and dismiss it as a costume. An elephant? Come on, no one is that stupid.  
  
I came as quickly as I could, it's not easy getting through those alleyways when you're half elephant. Rachel said, her thought speech rather like panting. Then she regarded the girl I was holding onto and if an elephant can look puzzled, this one sure did. Marco, this is no time to be picking up girlfriends, okay?  
  
She's no girlfriend. She's a Yeerk. A Yeerk who…saw me morph. We have to take her back with us and see what to do about it. Jake will know.  
  
"Take me where? HEY! I'm right here you know! I can hear you do your…mind talking type stuff." The girl protested. In my defense, she really did look a lot like Rachel.   
  
She attacked me and with my lightning quick reflexes I caught her. Don't mess with Marco the Fearless. I told Rachel. But I don't think there's a meeting here tonight. Or it's later. If there was, we'd be swarmed with Hork Bajir and Taxxons right about now, or at least other Sharing people. She must have just come early. The early bird-  
  
"Saves nine." The girl finished. "I'm not a whatever you say I am. So, magic talking animals, please let me go." She talked very calmly, as though she were used to being around this kind of thing. Probably was trained to recognize Andalite bandits and react accordingly. Definitely a Yeerk anyway, no human would be prowling around a strip mall at night with a wooden stake in hand. It was just not normal.   
  
Nice try, Yeerk. I know you were about to kill me. So let's go on back nicely to Rachel's house, okay? Back roads, Rachel, cause I think we'll need your elephant morph. Your mom is away for the weekend, right?  
  
Right. We can tie her up and see where to go from there. Rachel asserted as we headed back to her apartment. And Marco? Jake is definitely not going to like this.  
  
Tell me something I don't know. Hey, Yeerk, what's your human's name? I asked as we walked along. The answer came defiantly enough.  
  
"For the last time I am not a Yeerk. I don't even know what a Yeerk is! MY name is Buffy Summers." 


	2. Chapter Two: Buffy

The Crossover  
  
By Deep Roller  
  
Author's Note: Arrrgh, I apologize for the formatting to this story, the separation of spaces between times is really crummy. Works just don't be liking my spacing, I suppose. But I figure putting little squiggles would just make it look worse so bear with me. ANYWAY, that's besides the point. Was there a point? Eh. I kind of find it funny that my spell check things Buffy is an unrecognized word and keeps trying to turn it into "buff" or "buggy".   
  
Jinako-chan, I don't mind, and thanks for asking. : )  
  
Disclaimer:  
  
Animorphs and all its characters are the property of K.A. Applegate. Buffy and all her pals (and not-so-pals) are Joss Whedon's. No profit is being made from this. None of the characters involved in this story are mine minus the occasional truck driver or ice cream vendor.  
  
Chapter Two: Buffy   
  
The first mistake was probably going out of my way to patrol in the strip mall. I mean, the only building that was any good was Starbucks, and I don't think many vampires or demons drink Starbucks. I could have used a latte, though, because I was planning on doing an all nighter when I got back from patrol.   
  
I mean, an all nighter-sort of all day-er. Because patrolling technically classifies as an all nighter. And there's no good coffee shops around mom's neighborhood, just the one with the ugly walls that sort of remind me of that color ketchup turns when it's out in the sun, and Mr. Vargas, the person who runs it always watches everyone and sweats a lot. Sweaty guys are definitely low on the list of good things. But back to the reason I was in a sucky place to patrol. See, they were spraying for bugs at the college and all the dorms were closed. Actually, everything was closed, classrooms and all, which was very good. That meant I had one more week to do my geological sciences paper, which was currently at zero pages when it should have been at fifteen. But really who cares about the sulfur dioxide shifting in the plate grafting of wherever? Oh right, Giles cares. Giles probably would have told me to stay away from the strip mall, too, but of course he was off having some sort of Giles-type convention dealie.   
  
So it was just my judgment, my wooden stake, and my new boots. Hey, I had to break them in sometime. I wasn't really expecting to find anything as I walked around, and I wasn't disappointed, since all I heard were my own footsteps. These boots have the neatest, quietest soles on them, but it was just THAT empty that I could hear myself. Maybe I should stop talking about my boots. But they WERE only twenty nine bucks, a bargain for all the buckles, and real leather, too. Ahem, anyway.   
  
Patrolling this place was turning into a bust, and for the fifty thousandth time I wondered why I had even COME this far out. The walking was probably good for me, but I needed to do less walking and more slaying. Seeing as I am the Slayer and all. I was just about to head on back home to start the science paper. Then I heard it.  
  
It was the sound of someone walking, and then stopping. A dark form was standing in front of one of the snack machines. Maybe it was just some kid hanging out, a thug who was trying to look tough and be cool with his buddies. But I couldn't take that chance, I had to investigate. So I started walking a little faster. Whoever it was hadn't heard me, and they were getting something out of the bottom of the machine, and eating it. I thought so, anyway, it was dark and hard to tell. Just a kid, a human, I thought to myself again, nothing to really get worked up about. Still…  
  
The person heard me and disappeared. I had thought maybe they ran down one of the alleys, since now I was hearing footsteps coming from the alley nearest me. Unless there's two of them, Buffy. Duh. Or MORE. Suddenly I began to wish that I had at least let someone know I was coming out here. Very not smart. Even Xander, heck, even SPIKE. Okay maybe not Spike. But someone, because this was a very out of the way place. But hey, I told myself, wait a second here, you're supposed to be able to fight your way out of a paper bag, don't tell me you're getting jumpy at the prospect of yuppie Starbucks demons and vampires? No, I answered myself, I just don't like the thought of going down a dark alley and not knowing how many things there are around me. As I headed down the alley, I stopped. Crunch, crunch. It sounded like someone was eating something, and the sound of a bag wrinkling. Retracing my steps, I returned to the snack machine.   
  
"Rachel!" The vampire that had been crouching behind the snack machine stood up and came toward me. I almost laughed out loud. They sure were making them short these days. This one looked like a kid maybe just into high school. I had him pinned against the wall when before I knew it I was almost falling over. This huge monkey came rushing out at me. Since when do vampires turn into monkeys?? Maybe it was a demon, a new kind of monkey demon. I'd have to ask Giles. Oh, right, Giles was at some precious CONVENTION. A were-monkey? Gorilla, I thought dimly to myself as the big animal seized my arm and ripped the stake out of it, breaking the stake in half and surprisingly, talking in my head.  
  
So then there were TWO of them, and now they were taking me someplace. For the first time that night, I began to feel nervous, really nervous. No one knew where I was, and these two demon-animal-things had me. They were talking about tying me up. Take it easy, Buffy, I told myself, just go along with it until you can take some action.  
  
An elephant? I was thinking more grizzly bear. The gorilla was telling the elephant.   
  
You said biggest, Marco. So I went biggest! Alright? Is that okay with you?   
  
What's got you so upset? The gorilla, Marco, asked the elephant.  
  
Other than the fact that we now have some Yeerk to deal with thanks to you and I ripped my favorite shirt to shreds morphing to come to your aid? Nothing, really.  
  
She really does look like you, you know. Of course, I didn't know Yeerks carried stakes. Or I wonder if this one isn't high enough on the promotion list to be able to carry a Dracon beam. They kept saying that word. I wondered if that's what this particular kind of demon called humans. You never knew.  
  
Very funny. Look, I'm going to demorph now seeing as we need to get into the house, and I don't want to explain to my mom that I was wearing it as an elephant for awhile. You stay in morph. The gorilla and the elephant stopped, and I overbalanced and nearly fell flat on my face. We were standing in the bushes to the side of a house that seemed kind of small. And my boots were scuffed. Great.   
  
"Great, my boots are all scuffed." I started to say out loud but stopped as the elephant started getting smaller. Not just shrinking, but flat out MELTING, and turning pinkish. Now it was a pink-gray elephant about the size of a golf cart when a big mop of blonde hair popped onto the rapidly shrinking head. The two tusks sucked back into the head like spaghetti noodles. It was pretty gross. I mean, ew, hello, melting elephants? And I've seen a lot of gross in my life. The front legs started turning into arms, and then hands, but there were no fingers on either hands. It was kinda like watching a car wreck, gross but I couldn't look away. The gorilla just sort of stared levelly at it, was probably used to this kind of thing. Now the elephant was mostly human, a girl who kind of looked like me. Except I wouldn't be caught dead in the little black leotard she was wearing, of course. It's the principal of the thing.  
  
The girl who had been an elephant looked me over and nodded. "Okay, so she does look like me. A little. Hey, those ARE nice boots. Where did you get them?" She asked me like it was a perfectly normal question for someone who had just turned into a girl and who had just been an elephant.  
  
Is there any way you can get ahold of Ax or Jake now, Rachel? The gorilla asked clearly annoyed with Rachel's question. Can we go inside?.   
  
"Well," Rachel responded as she lead the way to the house, "Jake's writing his English paper, and I'm not sure where Ax is right now. I could always go find Tobias. He'll know where Ax is, too." The paper! I had forgotten ALL about my science paper. I was SO dead if I lived through this whole getting abducted by animal demons thing .   
  
I think capturing a Yeerk is more important than the themes of Hamlet. Marco said earnestly, It's not every day we capture one.  
  
"Jake can know tomorrow. And Cassie too. I'll go get Tobias and Ax, you stay here with," and here she smothered a giggle, "Buffy." She went back outside before I could get a cutting remark in.   
  
Okay, so what's wrong with my name? Buffy is a GOOD name. Better than 'Rachel' anyway. Seriously. They tied me to a chair, of course. I didn't exactly resist, but then Marco the were-monkey was really strong and I had a feeling he was serious about the neck snapping thing. I didn't particularly want to risk it. They tied me tight, too, and the rope was really itchy. Then Marco sat across from me and started to change. What did they call it? Demorphing? Well that's what he did. I really wanted to flinch or look away but I didn't want to appear weak or anything. He didn't melt like Rachel had done. But his face changed, from the gorilla face back into a human one, so that he was a human faced gorilla. I repeat, ew. And weird. Soon he was all human, and he was . Not too terribly impressive, and really YOUNG, too. Like maybe just starting high school or something. But these demons were always crafty, they were always fooling you with whatever form they were taking. That's how they got so darn successful. I mean, no one believed me when I had the evil demon roommate. Now this one was talking to me.   
  
"Okay, Buffy," Marco said, folding his hands and settling back in a chair, "where was the rest of your group? Why weren't the Sharing meeting at Valley Acres. You better talk because maybe if you talk, we'll let you live. Maybe."  
  
"Valley Acres? Is THAT what that place was called? Man, I got a long way out there. Anyway, what's the Sharing, and what's a Yeerk?" I asked, surprised. Valley Acres was at least twenty minutes out of town. Oh man, Giles and Willow and everyone else are going to KILL me when they find out what happened. Marco sighed and started talking to me like I was a very slow person.  
  
"Maybe you lost your memory. YOU'RE a Yeerk. You're a little slug living inside the brain of your host body. I can't believe anyone would take the host body of someone named Buffy, but that's your choice not mine. Obviously, you're a Yeerk with fashion sense. And you're here because if we let you go, you'll go running to your man Visser Three and tell him that we're not the Andalite bandits he thinks we are. So in order to stop that, we're keeping you here until you die of starvation."   
  
I could FEEL my eyes bugging out of my skull and I started kicking out and twitching, trying to get out of the ropes. Man they were tied tight, and they were probably going to leave some nice marks in my skin.  
  
"Oh, not your host body, we'll feed that. I know the real Buffy can hear me in there, so she doesn't have to worry about that. But we're starving YOU, Yeerk. Like Kandrona rays? Well, kiss 'em goodbye."  
  
The real Buffy? What was he talking about? Were Yeerks a kind of demon, because it sounded a lot like possession to me. But these were demons, too. No doubt, no kids could turn into animals, last time I checked. Unless you count Oz. But Oz was a werewolf. So really, they were something other than human and trying to coexist with humans. It seems to be a big trend with demons nowadays.   
  
"How do you know I'm a Yeerk? What if I'm just a regular normal person?"  
  
"First of all, no regular normal person goes stalking through a strip mall at night. Second of all, no regular normal person carries a wooden STAKE around with them, and third of all, a regular normal person would be freaking out by now. So therefore, you're a Yeerk," he explained matter-of-factly.  
  
"Or I could just be a really tired college student who needs to get home and write a paper and this could alll have been some dream I had. I have a lot of weirder dreams than this, so it's not really surprising." I offered, to which he snorted at me. "Okay, you are WAY too young to be disrespecting your elders like this!" I said, miffed that he'd just pass me off like that.  
  
"Elders? Oh come on, you're not much older than I am. At least your host isn't. Maybe you are, I don't know. Come on, how embarrassing is it to be the only Yeerk in the pool with a host by the name of "Buffy"? Be honest."   
  
Rachel came back in through the door just then, with two other guys behind her. She nodded at one of them, and he began to change. Morph? Demorph? I don't know. "I wish you'd stop doing that." I muttered, knowing no one really cared what I thought. But this one was turning into nothing I'd ever seen before, not even among demons. A blue deer thing with four eyes, two of which were on stalks that looked like bendy straws, and a tail with a very sharp looking blade. The blade was against my throat in a second, and I'd like to say I didn't jump or freak, but that would be lying. Still, I was so angry at the whole situation that I scowled at the thing. "You don't have to do that, you know. I'm not GOING anywhere."  
  
"Okay, Rachel, why in the world did you bring us here at ten at night?" The other boy asked, rubbing his eyes like he was sleepy. I couldn't really get past the blue deer thing, though, and I could have sworn he was glaring at me too.  
  
She is most certainly a Yeerk. She is looking at me with a Yeerk's anger for an Andalite. The deer thing was talking in my head.  
  
"So see? It's a good thing I caught her and brought her here." Marco said, standing up.  
  
"I still don't see why this couldn't have waited until morning." The taller, sandy haired guy grumbled. His face, though, didn't seem to really convey any sort of emotion whatsoever, it was just sort of blank. Whatever was happening here was really weird.   
  
"We need your help, boys." Rachel told them. "Because you two won't be missed overnight like Marco would. I need someone to help stand guard over the Yeerk and make sure it doesn't get away."  
  
"But Rachel, my territory…"  
  
"We'll take care of it, Tobias, don't worry. Please?" Rachel asked him, and I could see even in my state of kind of not really panic that these two had a THING. It would have been cute if I didn't have a blade pressed against my throat and wasn't bound to a chair.  
  
"Well…alright." Tobias muttered. "But I think I'll demorph if you don't mind."  
  
"Ugh, not again!" I said, shutting my eyes against seeing ANOTHER change. I had a feeling I was going to have nightmares if I got any sleep whatsoever. When I reopened them, there was a big bird perched on the chair Marco had been sitting on.  
  
"Did you hunt tonight, Tobias?" Rachel asked him, moving over to sort of scratch the bird's neck.  
  
Nice big rat. And Marco, you'll be happy to know I avoided some road kill tonight. The hawk swiveled its head to regard Marco, and Marco smirked back at the bird. Tobias. His name was Tobias. And Rachel liked him, but he was a ….bird? So confusing.  
  
"Glad to hear it, you can get diseases from road kill." Marco replied. "Now, I have to get home. Should we have another meeting here, tomorrow? When are your mom and sisters coming back?"   
  
"Around eight tomorrow night, so we'll have to stash the Yeerk somewhere else. Maybe that place we had Jake in when he was infested?"  
  
"Sounds good. Goodnight everyone. Sweet dreams, Buffy the Yeerk." Marco said as he left.   
  
"Could you PLEASE put that nice big shiny blade down? I promise I'm not going to do anything. Like I could anyway." I told the big blue deer thing. The Andabite? Andamite? Something like that. Reluctantly it did.   
  
Rachel, shall I stay here with the Yeerk and Tobias on the floor?  
  
"That would be very sweet of you Ax. Let me know if she tries anything funny, would you? I need to get to bed if I'm going to be awake enough to take that chemistry test tomorrow." Ax nodded, and I noticed he didn't have a mouth. It was also weird because as his two eyes looked at Rachel, the bendy straw eyes looked at me. I looked back, and resisted the urge to make a face. Rachel turned out the light and I was left in the dark with a bird and a blue deer thing.  
  
"So," I said, trying to make conversation. "Why are you a bird?"  
  
I got trapped this way, trapped in morph. Like you care, Yeerk. He added, and it sounded as though he ruffled his feathers a bit as well.  
  
"Oh." I said, "kind of like Amy got trapped as a rat. Only wait, Willow did that."  
  
Who is Amy? And who is Willow? Tobias asked me with considerably more interest. I couldn't' see in the dark but I think he was staring at me as well.  
  
"No one. Why would YOU care, bird?" I mimicked, before shutting up entirely and trying to pretend like I didn't feel them both staring at me. It was going to be a long night. 


	3. Chapter Three: Jake

The Crossover

By Deep Roller

Author's Note: Hey, hey, kids! Sorry it's so short, but life comes first.

Disclaimer: Animorphs and all its characters are the property of K.A. Applegate. Buffy and all her pals (and not-so-pals) are Joss Whedon's. No profit is being made from this. None of the characters involved in this story are mine minus the occasional truck driver or ice cream vendor.

It was the last thing I needed. We hadn't had any activity for quite some time, and I was beginning to think things were getting back to normal. As normal as anything can be for kids who turn into animals and save the planet, anyway. No Yeerk news is good news, as they say.

So when I got the call that morning I was less than pleased. "Jake?"

"Hmm… Marco? Marco, man, it's like seven in the morning."

"Jake, we have a situation here. And that situation is uh…well…I saw the game last night, and I need to talk to you about it. The end score had me all tied up." Marco talking in code could be funny, or it could just be sad. Today it just made me want to slam the phone down and burrow back down under the covers. But as a fearless leader, that was not an option. But it should have been, it really should have been.

She had already untied herself once in the night, Ax told me when I arrived at the old shed we had agreed to meet at. She was almost out the door when he caught her. She had managed to twist his arm and practically lift him off the ground before he resorted to using his tailblade."I did not wish to injure her, Prince Jake. However, she left me with little option. Op shunnn."

"It's okay, Ax. You did fine." The girl, who looked remarkably like Rachel, was glaring at me. She had a cut on her cheek, and was bound to a chair with yards and yards of duct tape. "Where did you get all that duct tape, anyway? I've never seen so much in my life."

It was in the garage. Mom is a firm believer in being prepared for anything, and with duct tape, she feels she is. Boy was she right on that one. Rachel, currently a very large grizzly bear, said. She was standing close to the bound up girl, not taking any chances on escape number two.

"You know, you demons might not have circulation issues, but my hands are turning purple here!" The girl, Buffy, was complaining again. Marco sighed and rolled his eyes at me.

"Marco, why on earth did you morph in front of her? Why? Why didn't you make sure it was Rachel before you went babbling?"

"It was dark, she was tall blonde, and had the kick butt look to her. I mean, how many other tall blonde kick butts are there out at that time of night? She had a STAKE, Jake!"

What a lovely poem, Marco.

"Shut it, Rachel. Before I…"

Rachel reared up on her hind legs and towered over Marco. Before you what? Huh? I've got claws longer than your-

"Alright! Before this turns into When Animals Attack nine thousand, can we please straighten this out?" I asked. I could feel the familiar headache throbbing as I tried to sort things through. Marco insisted she was a Yeerk. She, naturally, insisted she wasn't. Cassie, fortunately, had the presence of mind to be helpful.

"Ax, besides possessing a hatred for Andalites and needing the Kandrona rays, are there any other ways to be sure of infestation?"

"I am afraid not. Those are the only ways."

"So this Buffy girl could be…not a Yeerk?"

"YES! Hell-lo! I've been trying to say that!" Buffy yelled. All of us ignored her. Cassie frowned, thinking. I left it to her and my mind wandered as I looked from Marco to Rachel to Tobias.

"Well, we can still keep her for three days, and if she's not a Yeerk, then no harm there. But that doesn't change that she knows things. And if anything ever DID happen, well, she knows too much. Much too much."

"Wow, Cassie, sounding every day more like some kinda vigilante guy." Marco observed. She was right, naturally. No telling if she'd ever get tangled up with Yeerks down the line. And they had ways of making you talk. That whole having a slug take over your brain for starters. And they'd want a girl like this, she had proven she was strong. Ax's sore arm told that story. But what to do?

"Is there any memory altering thing you Andalites have? Something that can erase this from her mind?"

"Oooh like Men In Black!" Cassie chimed in, immediately blushing and falling silent.

"Yes, there is. The Morj Modifier.But it is very difficult to obtain. Aiiiin. And it will take about three days to ship, if I can send for it. I could attempt to replicate the modifier with the right appliances, but I will need help."

"Great. So alien Fed Ex doesn't work so well, eh?" Marco asked. We all ignored him.

"Okay, so we get the ingredients, keep guarding Buffy, and hope for the best. That seems like a fairly easy thing to do. We just have to keep this a secret, and I think we're all good at that."

"Is the meeting over? Because I had to tape Passions last night, and I don't want to miss Days of our Lives. It's the one where Bianca finds out what JR has been up to." Marco said. Sometimes I worry about him and those soap operas of his.

Hey Marco, guess what? It's your turn to guard your little catch. Now, get your butt in morph before I kick it there for you. Rachel grumbled as she demorphed. I kept watch as Marco went gorilla. After all, that's what a leader is for. The plan was simple enough. It really was. It could have worked. Sadly, in all our time as Animorphs, we have never learned our lesson. Nothing that seems simple, sensible, or easy, ever turns out that way.


End file.
